Chapter Text
Discarded text books and half written homework assignments were strewn across Zaki’s desk, laid out haphazardly as if directly dumped from his backpack. Zaki was staring down at his phone, straining his eyes looking at the bright screen in his dark room. He was frustratedly scrolling through Spotify trying to find something new to listen to. If the same 20 anime intros repeated again he would end up throwing his phone out the window.
After 15 minutes of searching for a remotely good playlist, Zaki finally found a small one inspired by Summer Ghost. He clicked on it, curious to see if they’d done the manga and movie justice. Realizing that he’d actually have to get back to work, Zaki turned the volume up, grabbed his pencil, and begrudgingly started writing.
…
After 2 pretty good songs, and way too many ads, absolute audio heaven started playing.
It was less than a minute long, but every second was beautifully played and sung. It was slow and calm, with the instruments bleeding together in perfect harmony. Passive drums beat in the background, accompanied with an acoustic guitar. The singer whined the first few words before settling into a steady hum, his voice was quiet, and slightly higher than his own.
‘His voice is nice’
Zaki wasn’t paying much attention to the minimal lyrics, but they had something to do with falling in love with a ghost and committing suicide, fitting surprisingly well with the theme of the playlist. He paused the song right before it ended, so that he could catch the name of the artist.
‘GHOSTVOICE TK, cute,' he made a mental note of the slightly silly band name, and let the rest of the playlist continue.
…
The next day the song stuck in his head, it played on an infinite loop in the back of his mind. He didn’t even realize he was humming it until Mogari pointed it out to him.
The only way to get rid of a song stuck in your head is to listen to more music, so as soon as he got home he abandoned his backpack, and popped his earbuds in.
Looking at the Spotify page for the band, it was extremely blank. There was no profile, banner, or album pictures. No ‘about’ section, or photos of the band. Nothing to even point to there being more than one person. It felt like the page wasn’t meant to be seen by anyone other than the sole creator. ‘Then why even post in the first place?’
He couldn’t complain though.
Feeling a bit guilty, like he was intruding on the musician’s diary, he hesitated before picking a random song. He closed his eyes just listening to the music, pretending to focus on homework was too distracting; it needed his full attention.
‘No wonder Tamon likes music so much, this is literally perfect.’
This time he decided to listen less to the instruments, and more to the lyrics and vocals. He tilted his head and leaned on his hand, frozen like a statue, waiting for the music to start.
The song started immediately with rapid identical strums from a bass guitar, slowly winding up with another guitar coming in from the back. Since the lyrics hadn’t started yet, Zaki guessed that this song must be much longer than the last.
It was almost impossible to distinguish the drums, with how well they meshed with the other instruments. The perfect instrumental was only made better by the singer finally cutting in.
Zaki relaxed in his chair, like he was specifically waiting to hear the singer’s soft voice. His vocals faded in and out; you could hear each breath he took in between lines, it gave the out of breath singing even more charm. He described gripping onto fleeting touches between him and an unnamed friend. Reading into them and wishing their hand was on his shoulder all the time.
Zaki smiled into his palm, being reminded of when he has to grab Tamon’s shoulder during exorcisms to transfer his sight. He was struggling to ignore the slight warmth dusting his cheeks at the thought. He reads too many shoujo romances.
Zaki rolled his eyes at his own stupid thoughts, and tried to refocus on the music.
He let himself melt into the sounds of the instruments until nothing in the world remained. His mind clung onto the music for as long as it could, before he drifted into sleep.
…
He woke up with an ad blasting in his earbuds, advertising some random music festival he’ll never attend.
He turned over to check the time; there was a few hours until he needed to get ready for school. So he put on some random pants from off the floor, and a baggy t-shirt, and left to take a walk.
It's not something he's usually do, but fresh air seemed a lot better than scrolling on his phone till the last minute.
He snuck out passed Hikaru, who was passed out snoring on the couch, and left without making a sound.
It was still dark outside, but Zaki didn’t mind. There was small, constant wind blowing through his hair, and the street was completely empty, except for the few ghosts following him.
The world felt uncomfortably quiet, he had to drown out the silence. He took his phone out and went back to the GHOSTVOICE TK page, lingering on it for a second. He wondered if maybe the ‘TK’ was the musicians initials, it made the small, probably secret account seem even more personal.
He once again clicked on a random song and waited for it to play, it seemed like a routine at this point.
The song was completely silent for a few seconds at the beginning, before a quiet guitar fades in. The lyrics started soon after, describing eyes peering down and judging him.
All the instruments start slowly amping up, the music sounds loud and chaotic. It seemed specially made for him, it was weirdly relaxing, in a way that only someone close would be able to understand.
It switches to a more positive tone, bringing up someone who was able to change his view of everyone. It’s calming listening to him describe the eyes of the person he loves, with colors filling his head.
Loving someone, scars and all, was only a dream that Zaki wished to experience, but listening to a song about it was close enough.
Every word, every syllable that came out of the singer’s mouth was so full of yearning and hope, it made Zaki so curious on who he was singing about.
The name of the song was an initial, probably of the musician's “inspiration.”
Must be a coincidence that it’s his too.
